The game of table tennis utilizes small solid racquets or paddles. During play, a first player serves a ball over a net and a second player on the opposing team hits the ball back until one player fails to return the ball. The racquet, or paddle, is made of wood and the racquet head is typically covered with a layer of rubber. A regulation table tennis table is 274 cm long, 152 cm wide and 76 cm high. The tables generally have a dark green or blue colored wooden top.
A typical table tennis table has a first and a second section of a table tennis playing surface defining a gap there between. Each section may be hingedly affixed to a base structure so that the table may be folded up for storage. When positioned in a playing configuration, net posts are typically affixed to each side of the table for receiving ends of a table tennis net.
A difficulty associated with table tennis net posts is that conventional net posts have a clamping surface that spans the gap between the first and second sections of the playing surface. Oftentimes, the playing surfaces are not in perfect alignment, which then affects net placement and orientation when the spanning clamps are applied.
A second difficulty experienced by recreational players of table tennis is that of keeping track of the score. Many players have difficulty focusing on game play while simultaneously remembering the score.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide an improved net post that allows for easily locating the net in a vertical orientation. It is further desirable to provide a net post that permits easy centering of the net over the gap between the playing surfaces.
It is additionally desirable to provide a score display device that may be actuated by a player to tally the score of a match and to display the score to each player. It is also desirable to provide score display devices that may be positioned over the table tennis net posts so that the devices are located in a convenient location that does not affect game play.